VMware vCenter Server Licensing Product Support Engineering VMware Confidential

VMware vCenter Server Licensing

Product Support Engineering

VMware Confidential

VI4 - Mod 1-4 - Slide 2

Module 1-4 Lessons

Lesson 1 – vSphere Upgrade

Lesson 2 – ESX 4.0 Install

Lesson 3 – vCenter Server 4.0

Lesson 4 – vSphere 4.0 Licensing

Lesson 5 – Remote CLI


Module 1-5 Lessons

Lesson 1 – Overview of ESX 4.0 Licensing

Lesson 2 – License Management for Legacy hosts

Lesson 3 – Configure Licensing for Legacy Hosts

Lesson 4 – Managing VC 4.0 Licenses

Lesson 5 – Troubleshooting Licenses


Serial Number BreakdownType Product VMODL Key Features (VMODL Key) Limitations

ESX

ESX Enterprise esxEnterprise

nas, vsmp, san, iscsi, backup, esxHost, das, drs, vmotion, ft,mpio, hotplug, hostprofile, dvs, vmsafe, dvfilter, svmotion, hostcluster

maxVcpusPerVm=8

ESX Standard esxFull nas, vsmp, san, iscsi, backup, esxHost, das, hotplug, vmsafe, dvfilter

maxVcpusPerVm=8

ESX Foundation esxExpress nas, vsmp, san, iscsi, backup, esxHost, hotplug, vmsafe, dvfilter

maxVcpusPerVm=8

ESX Standalone esxBasic nas, vsmp, san, iscsi maxVcpusPerVm=2

ESX VDI esxVdi

nas, vsmp, san, iscsi, backup, esxHost, das, drs, vmotion, ft, mpio, hotplug, hostprofile, dvs, vmsafe, dvfilter, svmotion, hostcluster

maxVcpusPerVm=8

VC

VirtualCenter Server

vc federation, woe

VirtualCenter Foundation Server

vcExpress

maxHOST=3


Serial Number Breakdown

Edition Addon1 Addon2 Addon3 Addon4 Addon5

ESX Enterprise

ESX Standard vmotion svmotion drs ft hostprofile

ESX Foundation das vmotion svmotion drs ft

ESX Standalone esxHost backup vmsafe dvfilter das


Managing vSphere Licenses

In vCenter Server 4.0, license reporting and management are centralized

You no longer need a license server or host license files if you have upgraded all your ESX hosts to 4.0

All product and feature licenses are encapsulated in 25 character license keys that you can manage and monitor from vCenter Server 4.0

Each ESX/ESXi host requires one license key.

Each vCenter Server instance requires one license key.

Two Editions - Foundation and Enterprise.

The Enterprise edition includes VMware DRS, VMware HA, and VMotion.

In a vCenter Server system, the Home > Licensing screen includes a Manage vSphere Licenses wizard that guides you through these tasks:

Adding license keys to the inventory

Assigning licenses to assets

Unassigning licenses

Removing license keys from the inventory


Evaluation Mode for ESX

ESX 4.0 can be installed and run in Evaluation Mode

Evaluation mode is intended for demonstration and evaluation purposes

Full functionality of ESX 4.0 for 60 days from the time you install

During the evaluation period, the software notifies you of the time remaining until the evaluation expires

ESX Enterprise evaluation mode allows you to use VMware VMotion, VMware High Availability, VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler

60-day evaluation period begins to count down immediately after the first time you power on the ESX machine


Licensing ESX After the Evaluation Period Expires

After 60-day evaluation period expires

You are no longer able to perform most operations in ESX

You cannot power on virtual machines, add new hosts , or use advanced ESX features

Hosts are disconnected from the vCenter Server system if the evaluation period expires before you assign a license

NOTE Reinstalling the vCenter Server after the 60-day evaluation expires does not restart the evaluation period from the beginning.


Configure VirtualCenter to Use Evaluation Mode

When you run VirtualCenter in evaluation mode, vCenter 4.0 behaves for 60 days as if it has a VirtualCenter Server edition license.

The VirtualCenter Server and evaluation editions of VirtualCenter allow you to manage an unlimited number of hosts and use Linked-Mode VirtualCenter.

To configure VirtualCenter to use evaluation mode

If you install VirtualCenter and do not enter a license key during the installation, VirtualCenter is installed in evaluation mode. When the install wizard prompts you for a license key, leave the license-key field blank.


License Management for Legacy Hosts ( ESX 3.x )

FlexLM License Server is required to manage ESX 3.x/ESXi 3.5 hosts in vCenter Server 4.0

vCenter Server 4.0 must be configured with the FlexLM license server connection details

When you add an ESX 3.x/ESXi 3.5 host to the vCenter Server 4.0 inventory, vCenter Server checks out vCenter Server Agent licenses from the FlexLM license server.

The license server also manages VMware VMotion, VMware Distributed Resources, VMware High Availability, and VMware Consolidated Backup licenses for ESX 3.x/ESXi 3.5 hosts.

The FlexLM License Server can be installed from a VC 2.5 CD


Configure a Legacy License Server for vCenter Server 4.0

Before you begin this procedure,

Make sure that vCenter Server is licensed by choosing Home > Licensing.

If vCenter Server is in evaluation mode or is unlicensed, click Manage vSphere Licenses and assign a license key to vCenter Server

Host-Based License Files for Legacy Hosts

If your ESX 3.x and ESXi 3.5 hosts have host-based license files, you can continue to use the license files. However, host-based license files are not a substitute for the license server that is required by vCenter Server 4.0 when vCenter Server is managing legacy hosts.


Configure a Legacy License Server for vCenter Server

From the VI Client, select Administration > vCenter Server Settings

Click Licensing in the list on the left.

Select a vCenter Server from the Current vCenter menu.

Under License Server, enter the fully qualified domain name or the IP address of the license server and, optionally, a port.If you do not specify a port, the default port, 27000, is used.

Select Reconfigure ESX 3 hosts using license servers to use this server if you want each ESX 3.x/ESXi 3.x host that you add to the vCenter Server inventory to use the same license server as this vCenter Server.


License Reporting for vSphere 3On the vCenter Server 4.0 Home > Licensing screen, you can monitor Virtual Infrastructure 3 license information.

Populating and displaying legacy host information requires polling of the license server

Displaying legacy host information might take more time than displaying ESX 4.0/ESXi 4.0 host information


Monitoring License Information

In vCenter Server 4.0, you can view Virtual Infrastructure 3 and vSphere 4 license inventory data by:

Product – A product is a license to use a vSphere software component or feature. For example:

vSphere 4 ESXi Enterprise (1-4 cores per CPU)

vSphere 4 vCenter Server Enterprise


Monitoring License Information

License key – A license key is the serial number that corresponds to a product.

Asset – An asset is a ESX or vCenter on which a product is installed. For an asset to run certain software legally, the asset must be licensed to do so. The license report displays licensed assets only. The report does not display assets that are unlicensed. You can split some license keys by applying them to multiple assets. For example you can split a 4-CPU license by applying it to two 2-CPU hosts.


Label a License Key

When you view licenses in the report, you can add an optional description of each license key or of a set of license keys. These labels appear and are editable in the license report. By default, the label field is empty.

To add or change a label

1 From a vSphere Client host that is connected to vCenter Server, click Home > Licensing.

2 Click View by Product or License key.

3 Select a license key.If you are viewing the report by product, click a product to expand the list of associated license keys and select a license key.

4 Click the label field and enter a new label.


Export Report Data

You can export license data to a file.

To export license inventory data

From a vSphere Client host that is connected to vCenter Server, click Home > Licensing.

Select the view that you want to export: Product, License key, or Asset.

From the report screen, click Export.


Export Report Data

In the save-as dialog box, select a folder, a file name, and a format for the exported license data and click Save.


Managing Licenses Centrally

You can manage all of your vSphere 4 licenses from a single location using vCenter Server. In vCenter Server, the licensing administration page includes a Manage vSphere Licenses wizard that guides you through these tasks:

Adding license keys to the license inventory

Assigning licenses to assets

Unassigning licenses

Removing license keysfrom the license inventory


Add License KeysThe Manage Licenses wizard allows you to add multiple license keys in a single procedure or add one license key at a time.

To add license keys


Click Manage vSphere Licenses.

In the Add License Keys text area, enter license keys one per line.

Type a brief description of the key or keys.


Add License KeysClick Add License Keys.The wizard validates the keys. If any of the keys are invalid, an error message lists the invalid keys according to the invalid condition, which can be:

Existing keys – The license key already exists in the vCenter Server inventory.

Expired keys – The license key is valid but expired.

Invalid keys – The license key is missing characters, has too many characters, or its characters are ordered improperly.


Add License Keys

Assign license keys to assetsSelect ESX or vCenter and in the Product window select an appropriate license key

Click Next through the remainingwizard screens and click Finish to save your changes.


Search for Assets

You can search for assets that you want to apply licenses to.

You can search based on the following criteria:

Asset name

License key


Search for Assets

To narrow the list of selectable assets



To skip the Add License Keys screen, click Next.

Type search terms into the Search for assets text area and press the Enter key.

Each asset with matching criteria appears in the list of selectable assets.

Click the ESX or vCenter Server tab to display the available assets that match your search term.


View the Current Status of an Asset

To view the status of an asset



To skip the Add License Keys screen, click Next.

Click the ESX or vCenter tab to display the available assets.

Rest your mouse cursor over an asset to view the current status.


Unlicense an AssetTo unlicense an asset



On the Assign Licenses screen, select an asset.

Click the ESX and vCenter tabs to display the asset types.

In the Product window, click Unlicensed and click Next.

Click Next to skip the Remove License screen. If you retain the license, you can assign it to another asset.

Click Finish to save your changes.


Remove License Keys

You can remove license keys that are not assigned to any assets from the vCenter Server inventory.

Reasons to remove a license include:

The license key has expired.

You have used the licensing portal to combine the capacities of multiple fragmented licenses and you need to remove the zero-capacity licenses.

You have upgraded your licenses and you need to remove the legacy licenses.


Remove License Keys



Click Next twice to go to the Remove License Keys screen.

Select the license to remove it from the inventory and click Next.By default, this screen displays only license keys that are not assigned to any assets.

Click Finish


Managing Licenses Individually

1. From the vSphere Client, select the host in the inventory.

2. Click the Configuration tab.

3. Under Software, click Licensed Features.

4. Click Edit.

5. Select Assign a new license key to this host, click Enter Key, and enter a license key and an optional label for the license key.

6. Click OK.



Serial Number Licensing

In vSphere we completely removed the FLEX licensing system (except as noted below)

vSphere uses serial numbers to license both VC and ESX

Each ESX system is licensed using one serial number

Each instance of VC is licensed using one VC serial number

VC can also manage ESX serial numbers and can license ESX systems by pushing down the serial number

VC becomes the license manager replacing the FLEX license server

Note: If the vSphere environment also includes ESX 3.5 hosts, a FLEX License Server is still required



Serial Number Licensing (continued)

Serial number licensing relies on two components:

Serial number

Dormant license file (DLF)

The customer enters the serial number into the product

This unlocks the dormant license file to which the serial number maps

The serial number describes customer specific information:

CPU count, support-level, expiration date, etc.

The dormant license file describes product specific information:

Edition, vSMP support (max vCPUs/VM), licensed features (VMotion, iSCSI, DRS etc.) etc.



Dormant License File Details

On ESX dormant license files reside in:

/usr/lib/vmware/licenses/site/

On VC dormant license files for VC & ESX reside in:

C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\VirtualCenter Server\licenses\site\



ESX 1

xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

ESX 2

ESX 3

ESX DLF

VC DLF

VC Serial Number

VI (ESX) Serial Number

yyyy-yyyyy-yyyyy-yyyyy-yyyyy

VirtualCenter Server



Additional vSphere Changes

Add-on Licenses

In vSphere, licensing capabilities are associated with an edition, not broken down into feature-based licenses as it was with FLEX

Each serial number maps to a dormant license file that describes the capabilities of the edition



Additional vSphere Changes (continued)

Add-on Licenses (continued)

vSphere also calls for the ability to buy an edition and then add features (e.g. Foundation + VMotion) all using the same serial number

Add-on features are encoded in the serial number using the 5 “reserved” bits

The licensed capabilities are therefore:

The features granted by the edition

Plus

All add-on features encoded in the serial number



Example ESX DLF

# VMware software license

StartFields = "Cpt, ProductID, LicenseVersion, LicenseType, LicenseEdition, Option, Epoch"

Cpt = "COPYRIGHT (c) VMware, Inc. 1999-2008"

ProductID = "VMware ESX Server"

LicenseVersion = "4.0"

LicenseType = "Site"

Epoch = "2008-3-1"

LicenseEdition = "esxEnterprise"

Option = "7"

Data = "capacityType=cpuPackage:6core;enable=nas,vsmp:8,san,iscsi,backup,vmotion,das,drs,esxHost,ft,mpio,hotplug,hostprofile,dvs,vmsafe,dvfilter,svmotion;desc=vSphere Enterprise"

DataHash = "a0301bd7-24ca5857-3dcf9a37-c77ab7c0-f930f835"

Hash = "509ffd42-c589afc5-de222652-412de1a9-41894b7e"



Example VC DLF

# VMware software license

StartFields = "Cpt, ProductID, LicenseVersion, LicenseType, LicenseEdition, Option, Epoch"

Cpt = "COPYRIGHT (c) VMware, Inc. 1999-2008"

ProductID = "VMware VirtualCenter Server"

LicenseVersion = "4.0"

LicenseType = "Site"

Epoch = "2008-3-1"

LicenseEdition = "vc"

Option = "7"

Data = "capacityType=server;enable=linkedvc,woe;desc=vCenter Server;mdate=2008-11-19"

DataHash = "bd0c5c99-600797d5-6fb55898-baf9fe4a-e0519112"

Hash = "8c32ab91-fb372347-dc3e5fc1-20c072f7-7ff8cd9e"


Managing VMware Legacy Hosts (ESX 3.x/ESXi 3.5)

The troubleshooting scenarios in this section apply to mixed environments, in which vCenter Server 4.0 is managing legacy ESX 3.x/ESXi 3.5 hosts.

Check the License Server

If vCenter Server is managing legacy hosts, vCenter Server must check out vCenter Server Agent licenses from the license server.

If vCenter Server is having trouble communicating with your license server, check the following:

Check that the license server Windows service is running.

Check that license server is listening.

Check the license server status.


Managing VMware Legacy Hosts

To check that the license server Windows service is running

1 On the machine on which the license server is installed, select Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services to display the Services control panel.

2 Verify that the Status column for the VMware License Server entry reads Started.

3 If the VMware License Server is not started, right-click the service and select Start.


Check That the License Server is Listening

To check that the license server is listening

On the machine on which the license server is installed, select Start > Command Prompt.

Type netstat -ab at the command line.

Verify that the lmgrd.exe process is listening on port 27000 and that the VMWARELM.exe process is listening on port 27010.


Check the License Server Status

On the machine on which the license server is installed, select Start > Programs > VMware > VMware License Server > VMware License Server Tools to launch the LMTOOLS utility.

Click the Server Status tab to display the Server Status page.

Click Perform Status Inquiry.License server information,including the location of thelicense file, appears at the bottom of the page.


Check the License File

If your license server is operating properly or if your legacy hosts are using single-host licensing, but you cannot use licensed features, you have a problem with your license file.

Validate your license file at http://www.vmware.com/checklicense/

Ensure that you are using the correct type of license file. If you are using a license server, use a centralized file. If you are using single-host licensing, make sure that you are using a single-host license file on each host.

Centralized files contain a block of header text at the top, and the string ‘VENDOR_STRING=licenseType=Server’ appears in each license key in the file.

Single-host license files have no header text, and the string ‘VENDOR_STRING=licenseType=Host’ appears in each license key in the file.

http://www.vmware.com/checklicense/


Check the License File

If you are using a centralized license file, check that the license type header information appears only once and at the top of the file.

If you edited the license file, check that you did not mix centralized and single-host keys in a single file.

Check that the license file contains the correct keys for the features you want to use.


Lesson 1- 4 Summary

Learn how to License Legacy hosts in VI 4.0

Learn how licensing works in VI 4.0

License VC 4.0 and ESX 4.0 Hosts


Lesson 1- 4 - Lab 1

Lab 1 involves Licensing VC 4.0 and ESX 4.0 Hosts

Setting up License Server for Legacy Hosts

Licensing VC 4.0 and ESX 4.0 Hosts

License Reporting

Documents

VMware vCenter Server Licensing Product Support Engineering VMware Confidential